GUELPH — There’s a bit of a rebuilding to be done for the Bishop Macdonell Celtics and Ross Royals, last season’s District 10 high school senior girls’ volleyball championship combatants.

Both teams enter this season with three players back from their squad that played in last season’s championship match.

In league play Thursday at Bishop Mac, the reigning champion Celtics swept the match, winning 25-18, 25-19, 25-19.

“We have a lot of new players,” Bishop Mac coach Melissa Misurka said. “It’s a lot different than last year.”

The win was the second in as many matches for the Celtics.

“Being a new team, we’ve really adjusted well,” Misurka said. “For early in the season and for being such a new team, they’ve really adjusted to each other’s little habits and we’re working on things as a team. They’re so hard-working and they’re so dedicated and they’re really helping each other out.”

While the Royals also have a trio of players back from the squad that finished as D10 finalists last season, one of those (Cori Sears) missed Thursday’s match due to illness.

“We’re a very, very young team,” Ross coach Renee Rees said. “Usually I have five or six (returnees).”

The Royals are expecting to learn on the court and are hoping to challenge for a return to the league final.

“We’re going to improve a lot this year,” Rees said. “They’re eager and they work really hard. We have some really good hitters and really good passers, it was just that today we were missing two key players and that really kind of threw them off because they were in different positions and it was a learning curve.”

The other player the Royals were missing was Hillary Wetherall, out with a concussion.